In recent years, great progress has been made in our understanding of pancreatic cell biology and physiology. However, our knowledge of the pathophysiology of inflammatory diseases of the pancreas remains quite limited. This is, primarily, due to the great difficulties encountered when attempting to study clinical pancreatitis. For the most part, investigators pursuing this area of research have turned to models with which pancreatitis can be induced in experimental animals. Over the years, a great variety of models have been developed but their similarities to the disease as it occurs in man have always been questioned. Furthermore, the results obtained using the various models have often been, themselves, variable and no clear picture describing the pathophysiology of pancreatitis has emerged. It is becoming increasingly apparent to students of pancreatitis that a critical assessment of the current status of investigations in this area is badly needed. In this proposal, funds are requested to partially finance a workshop devoted to experimental pancreatitis. The workshop will bring together, for the first time, the majority of the investigators working in the field and attempt to critically evaluate the various models being used to study pancreatitis. In addition, the morphological as well as the cell biological and physiological features of pancreatitis, both experimental and clinical, will be discussed and an attempt made to correlate these phenomena. It can be expected that this workshop will accomplish a number of objectives. It will summarize our current understanding of experimental pancreatitis and identify the strengths and weaknesses of the various models being used. It will stimulate the correlation of structural with functional changes occurring during pancreatitis. Hopefully, this workshop will stimulate new effort in this field and identify new and more productive directions for future research.